Norwegian software company Opera, creators of the ‘Opera TV’ app store, have revealed an attempt to broaden the availability of their platform, after reaching an agreement with Taiwanese chip manufacturers MediaTek for a deal that will see their app integrated onto new smart TV chips sent around the world.

The only current takers of the Opera TV Store are Sony (through their Bravia TV and Blu-ray products), but with MediaTek’s support, the service is soon expected to be available for other manufacturers including Humax and TCL, amongst others.

The Opera TV Store, an ‘HTML 5-based app store’ created for smart TV sets and connected TV devices, features over 100 apps for download, and while that pales in comparison to the offering that a larger company such as Apple provide, Opera look to maintain business by featuring some of the most popular services for connected TV sets, including Facebook, Twitter, CineTrailer, AP News, TuneIn Radio, Vimeo, and Redux TV, amongst others.

By forming this new link-up, Opera are said to hope that companies aiming to promote their app in a less-congested environment can do so without being overwhelmed by rivals, with quality of content seemingly the order of the day in Opera’s store.

Opera Software CEO Lars Boilesen said of his hopes for the partnership with MediaTek: “Implementing the Opera TV Store in MediaTek’s Smart TV solution will help to move smart TVs from being a novelty to the mainstream. Millions of app-hungry users will be able to enjoy a comfortable, ‘lean back’ experience on their TVs.”

While it remains to be seen if this fairly low-key service can break into the global mainstream, will their inclusion on MediaTek chips give them a leg-up to achieving this goal?